Case Number 23483

Hugo (Blu-ray)

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All Rise...

Judge Jim Thomas once maintained the clocks at the Newark bus station. Nothing was on time.

The Charge

"If you ever wonder where your dreams come from, look around: This is
where they're made."

Opening Statement

The phrase "movie magic" has been bandied about so often that it
has become meaningless, just another empty phrase run into the ground. However,
there was a time when movie magic was more than a cliché: when the movies
were new, when literally no one had ever seen anything like it—not even
the people making the movies. Georges Méliès was one of those early
pioneers. Captivated, he built his own studio, even his own camera and
projector, and promptly redefined the notion of what was possible with the new
medium—and then he disappeared into obscurity.

Paramount now brings us Hugo (Blu-ray). Based on the children's
novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, the movie is
Martin Scorsese's tribute to the man who inspired so many filmmakers.

Facts of the Case

Behind the walls of a Parisian train station hidden apartment lives young
Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield, Nanny McFee Returns). From within the walls
of the station, Hugo watches life unfold below. Brought to the station by his
drunken uncle after his father (Jude Law, Sherlock Holmes) was killed in a museum
fire, Hugo has learned how to maintain all the clocks in the station. Now, he
moves around within the walls of the station, winding the clocks and keeping an
eye on things, occasionally emerging to swipe the odd pastry, being careful to
steer clear of the watchful gaze of the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat).

In his spare time, Hugo works on repairing an automaton, a robot-like device
that he and his father had been working on before his death. Convinced that the
automaton carries a message from his father, Hugo is obsessed with fixing it,
occasionally pilfering parts from the toy shop. One day, he is a little too slow
and is caught by the wily toymaker (Ben Kingsley, Sneakers). Hugo escapes, but the toymaker
confiscates his notebook, which has all the drawings and notes Hugo's father
made while working on the automaton. Desperate to recover the notebook, Hugo
enlists the help of the toymaker's goddaughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace
Moretz, Let Me In). Through their budding
friendship, they unlock the automaton's secret. Their discovery will open up new
worlds for them, and, with a little luck, they just might help her godfather
regain a treasure most precious—his dreams.

The Evidence

There are really two separate stories within Hugo: The tale of Hugo,
and the life of Georges Méliès. The good news is Scorsese tells both
stories brilliantly. From the opening shot—a long CGI tracking shot that
transitions into one of Scorsese's patented tracking shots through the train
station, the visual magic sucks you into Hugo's world. For the first hour, the
film is enchanting, with Hugo weaving through the train station as little
vignettes unfold before him. It is a virtuoso performance from a director who
has had so many such moments scattered through his career.

There was more than a little skepticism when Scorsese announced that he
would be shooting the movie in 3-D. However, the results demonstrate just how
effective 3-D can be—when it's used as an artistic tool, not a marketing
gimmick. This disc is the 2-D version (a 3-D Blu-ray is also being released),
but you can see how Scorsese frames his shots so that they are captivating in
two dimensions—3-D simply accentuates them. In fact, Scorsese comments in
the making-of featurette that they tweaked the 3-D effect throughout the movie,
punching it up or dialing it back some to produce exactly the effect he
wanted.

Hugo really isn't what you would call an actor's movie; that said,
the actors acquit themselves quite well. Butterman and Moretz offer nuanced
performances as Hugo and Isabella, and they have solid chemistry. The veterans
used for the minor roles are a treat, particularly Christopher Lee as Monsieur
Labisse, a bookseller who always seems to know what information his patrons are
really looking for. If Asa Butterman acts as the movie's heart, then Ben
Kingsley is its soul. Kingsley is always watchable, whether he's the older man,
all but broken, or the younger man, full of hope and promise.

Hugo picked up Oscars for cinematography, art direction, visual
effects, sound editing, and sound. Thanks to the tech whizzes at Paramount, this
disc will convince you that those awards were well-deserved. The 1080p MPEG-4
AVC-encoded video is razor sharp with colors that light up the screen. Details
pop of the screen, particularly the various mechanisms that were shot in tight
closeups. Note: The aspect ratio of 1.78:1 was adjusted from its original
1.85:1. The DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio mix is superlative—sound comes from
everywhere, side to side, in front, behind, even above and below. We're talking
reference quality for both audio and video.

The extras are somewhat superficial. The anchor is "Shooting the
Moon," a making-of featurette. "The Cinemagician" discusses the
life of Georges Melies—it basically covers the same information as the
movie itself. "The Mechanical Man" looks at the history of automata in
general and the one used in the movie. "Big Effects, Small Scale"
looks at the execution of the derailed train wreck sequence. All of those are
good enough; the "interview" with Sacha Baron Cohen is really Cohen
mugging for the camera. DVD and digital copies of the film are also included.
The film is such a technical achievement, though, that you really expect more
material on the technical side of things, whether it's the production design of
Scorsese's use of 3-D.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

While everything about the production is magic, the story itself can't quite
support all of the trappings. There is a sense of magical wonderment in the
first part of the movie, but in the latter half of the film, Scorsese is more
interested in documenting the life and career of Georges Méliès than
in continuing the story of Hugo. The Méliès section is filmed with the
same care as the first part of the movie, but it feels like a different film. Up
until that point, we're emotionally investing in Hugo, but then, through a
narrative sleight of hand, Méliès becomes the film's focus. Hugo fades
into the background, save for a single, predictable sequence at the end. It
doesn't derail the movie, mind you—it isn't as jarring a shift as Happy Feet suddenly turning into an
environmental tract—but the narrative break is just noticeable enough.
Additional development of the growing bond between Hugo and Méliès
might have bridged the two narratives more effectively.

Closing Statement

Despite a case of multiple personality syndrome, Hugo is a winning
tale of a young boy clinging to hope and an old man who has lost hope. It's a
wonderful example of movie magic that slowly transforms into a literal
celebration of that magic. While the transformation isn't as clean as it could
be, the film remains a glorious valentine to the movies in general and Georges
Méliès in particular.